Blog Guest - Jess Anastasi - Heart of the Warlord
Hi Jess, welcome back to my blog! I'm so happy to have you here to celebrate another new release with Noble Romance Publishing. You've been a very busy writer since I had you here in Dec 2010. You've celebrated the release of numerous books, can you give us a little run down on what you have available and what genres they are in.
Well, first off there's my sci-fi paranormal Sanctuary series - Sanctuary, Severance, Singularity and the novella Savior. Besides those, I also have a romantic suspense, Dead Reality, available.
Like me and many writers out there you're a mum of young children, where do you pull your time to write from and do you have any tips for the parent writer out there.
Oh god no, don't let me go giving tips to other people! On the weekend I was actually considering the amount of work I have going at the moment and wondering where in the heck I was going to find time to do it when I feel like I barely sit at the computer for more than five minutes at a time. Seriously, sometimes I don't even know how I get the work done. But I can tell you it's in detriment to my housework. In fact some of the dust-bunnies have been looking pretty suspicious this week. Think they might be considering a take over… there's certainly enough of them lurking in corners around the house!
Your new release sounds fantastic and almost like an Historical novel but based in the future IYKWIM. Which of course, has sparked my interest. Can you tell us a little about the book, and what triggered the idea?
Okay, well most of my reasons for doing things sound crazy outside of my head (angels and demons in spaceships anyone?!), but I'll try to explain. So, many, many years ago, when I first started writing, I wanted to be a historical author. I loved the good 'ol regency — Julia Quinn, Suzanne Enoch, Karen Hawkins, Elizabeth Boyle, they were my authors of choice. I actually wrote about four historical manuscripts. Except turns out I didn't have the voice for historicals. However, I still loved the idea of them and always have. Like Sanctuary, Heart of the Warlord was me being very experimental. I knew my real strength lay in writing sci-fi/fantasy, but I still wanted to work with the idea of a society structure like that of a historical. So what did I do? Mashed the two together and ended up with the idea for Heart of the Warlord.
BLURB: On the planet Kanaan, Jiovahnie Dorrian, the Marques of Gryffin, walks a fine line between keeping his place in society amongst the Ruling Families, and his ancestral legacy of being a warlord. Though he'd rather stay camped in the Borderlands with his men, when his cousin, the Duque of Harkin is to be married, it's the event of the season. One he can't miss. After all, the duque expects him to be the best man. But Vahn doesn't anticipate his best man duties to include fetching his cousin's bride when an enemy attempts to abduct her.
Lady Gwynevive Tyne isn't the wilting Miss society expects her to be. And when mercenaries attack her traveling party on the way to her intended husband's home, she does what any self-respecting girl should — tries to steal the enemy's ship to escape. But before she can get away with the reckless plan, a warrior turns up claiming to be sent by her fiancé. He dresses like a mercenary and his silvery, metal-gray eyes make her heart beat a little too fast.
For both Vahn and Gwyn, a forbidden attraction flames to life between them almost instantly. Both know there's no way they can be together. Yet neither of them can stay away from one another. An enemy is intent on preventing Gwyn's marriage, and at every turn, Vahn finds himself protecting Gwyn from danger. He needs to keep her safe and then hand her over to his cousin to wed. And when the time comes, they have to find some way to let each other go… Or risk starting a war that could tear apart the Ruling Families.
How long did it take you to write Heart of the Warlord?
That's actually a tough question. I initially wrote this as a novella, because I wasn't really sure that shoving a historical kind of plot into a sci-fi setting would work. Well, as it came about, the idea worked, but the novella didn't. Luckily my lovely editor isn't afraid to tell me exactly what works and what doesn't. So I left the manuscript alone for a while to work on other projects and at last came to the realization that I was trying to fit too much into a novella sized story. So I fleshed it out and completely changed the ending, which left me with the book that's being published today.
And I understand you plan on writing another story to coincide with Heart of the Warlord. Can you tell us a little about this story, and where it will take us?
Hell yeah! I've made a start on the second book, tentatively titled Heart of the Devil. It's based on Gwyn's brother, Cael, Count D'eivil. Society calls him the Devil Count (not to his face, of course!) but Cael isn't all he seems. Without giving too much of either stories away, Cael uncovers a plot to assassinate Prince Xavier, the emperor's son. The assassin is a beautiful off-worlder, named Lillyan, bent on changing things for the better. Even after Cael foils her plan to kill Prince Xavier, she ends up opening Cael's eyes to the truth of what happens behind the glitter of Kanaan society.
The follow-up novel sounds fantastic! So, what's next for Jess Anastasi?
Who the heck knows? I sure don't! I have some ideas, but one thing I've learned about this business is that you never really know what's going to happen. For now I can only definitely say that besides Cael's book, I also have some Sanctuary books and/or novellas in the works, so keep an eye out for those later in the year.
Thanks for visiting, Jess. It's been wonderful having you here again. Congratulations on your upcoming release; I wish you many sales and great reviews. My pleasure… I love visiting with you, Tam! You can visit Jess at her website or blog or alternatively through Noble Romance Publishing.